Chapter Five: Doctor No More

Archie did not say much to Henry even after bringing him to his home and giving him a glass of milk to drink while waiting for both his birth mother and his foster mother to arrive. He wanted to call both Emma and Regina upon realizing how dire Henry's situation was with his constant ramblings of this "Doctor" character. It was one thing for Henry to confuse reality with fiction, believing everyone in Storybrooke to be once fairy tale characters; but it was another entirely to make up an entirely new character like "The Doctor."

After nearly half an hour, Archie finally heard two cars pull up in front of his house; he went outside, leaving Henry alone in his office, and met with Regina and Emma. At the moment Archie stepped out, Regina and Emma were already at each other's throats over Henry.

"What nonsense have you gotten him involved in now, Miss Swan?"

"Me? I wasn't even anywhere near him!"

"Oh, right, of course. You've simply been out on duty, playing sheriff."

"Where do you come off…?"

Archie could not take much more of their bickering, which prompted him to shout out in frustration, "Ladies, please! Henry's inside! I don't think your arguing will be good for him right now!"

Seeing how right Archie was, Regina and Emma both quickly settled down, even though the tension between was still evident in their façades. "You're right, Archie," said Emma. "Where is he? Can we see him?"

"Of course we can see him. He's my son."

Regina brisk past Archie to get inside his home; as soon as she was in, she repeatedly called out to Henry, anger clearly detectable in her voice. She finally found him in Archie's office with the glass of milk. At first she was very relieved, calmly asking Henry, "Are you alright?"

Henry turned to her and nodded slowly. "I'm fine."

Once she got this confirmation from him, Regina rapidly went into her usual stern demeanor. "What did I tell you about leaving the house this time of night? Henry, I am trying hard to…"

"One problem at a time, Mayor." She unexpectedly heard Emma tell her as Henry's birth mother walk into the room with Archie and immediately addressed her son. "Henry, what happened?"

"The Doctor's gone." Henry answered right away. "He took me away into his TARDIS and showed me the day that he died or was going to die. Then he tried to bring me back here until we ran into some trouble and he…he disappeared!"

Listening to Henry's story greatly upset Regina to the point where she turned to Archie and said in sarcasm, "Clearly your sessions have improved my son. Not only has he stopped talking fantasy, he's now gotten into science fiction."

"This isn't science fiction. This is real." Henry defensively stated. "You saw the Doctor and his TARDIS this morning. Don't you remember?" He saw the confusion on his foster mother's face and added, "Across from Granny's Diner? The police box on the street corner?"

"Henry, the only place I was this morning was with you, bailing you out of trouble from those two runaway children that tried to sneak items out of Mr. Clark's store in your backpack." Regina informed.

"Yeah, for once I can vouch for her, Henry." Emma acknowledged. "I was there."

Henry looked back and forth between his two mothers, looking very perplexed; he obviously could not recall these events they had mentioned. What surprised him even more was how neither of his mothers could remember ever meeting the Doctor that day. "I don't remember doing any of that today."

His confusion concerned Emma. "You don't remember meeting Ava and Nicholas? You told me that you found out they were Hansel and Gretel. I was able to get them back to their father earlier tonight. Isn't that great?"

Henry did his best to remember these events, but they were coming like a haze to him. Is this all the curse trying to make me forget about the Doctor, he subconsciously asked himself.

"Henry, if this is another one of your attempts to get Miss Swan to see you…" Regina began.

"The police box!" Henry exclaimed with excitement. "It's still on the corner!" He then took Emma by the hand and rushed her out of the room. "C'mon! I'll show you, and then you'll remember seeing the Doctor!"

Emma gave Archie a look, as if asking for what to do; he simply nodded for her to go on with Henry, and she allowed herself to be whisked away by her excitable son. In reaction to this, Regina furiously asked Archie, "Is all of this really necessary?"

"If these are new delusions that he's having, then it's best for us to support them just like the old ones." Archie suggested, much to the chagrin of Regina, who followed Emma and Henry out of the house with Archie.

The group arrived upon the street corner where the police box in question still remained to Henry's delight. Henry could barely contain himself long enough to wait for Emma to stop her police car all the way before he jumped out and ran to the police box. As soon as Emma, Archie, and Regina were out of their vehicles, they approached the police box with Henry, who was almost reaching a point of hysteria that they hardly ever seen in him. It was clear how surprised Emma, Archie, and Regina were from the very sight of the police box, which they had never once seen before in Storybrooke.

"It's still here!" Henry happily shouted. "Now do you remember?"

Emma pointed to the police box and asked, "Is this one of Mr. Gold's?"

Archie adjusted his glasses, looking up and down over the police box. "I don't suppose so."

Henry groaned when he saw that their confusion still remained, despite witnessing the true existence of the police box from his story. "How can none of you remember this? Archie, you saw me walk out of it!"

"I do remember you walking out of it, Henry," confirmed Archie, "but I don't remember seeing where it had come from."

Closely looking over the three adults in front of him, Henry started to make sense of the strange transition. "You all don't remember because of the curse." This statement was met with the moans and eye-rolling of his foster mother. "It makes sense now. The curse knew the Doctor was going to help me break it, so it rewrote time and made it seem like he never existed!"

"Henry, enough of this." Regina demanded. "We are going home now."

Regina walked up to her son and attempted to take him by the hand; however, Henry swiftly stepped away from her and went to open the doors to the police box. "I'll show you how sure I am about this…because this isn't a police box…it's the Doctor's spaceship. He calls it the…"

Henry stopped cold as soon as he opened the police box's doors and discovered that its massive alien interior was no longer there; instead, there were just three walls that matched with its exterior, just like a normal police box would. He walked into the police box, touching the walls and feeling how real they were. The TARDIS console room was no more, just like the Doctor.

Emma had moved from concerned to practically scared for Henry. After sharing a questioning glance with Archie, she slowly walked over to Henry as he stepped out of the average police box in disappointment, tears once again streaming from his eyes. "Henry…"

Before Emma could say anymore, a passing gentleman stopped near them and said, "'ello, everyone. Is there a problem?"

That voice, Henry thought. Is that…?

Looking up, Henry was delighted to see that the passing gentleman was none other than the Doctor, albeit dressed much differently than he was just moments ago. Dressed in a red t-shirt and blue jeans with a black leather jacket and white tennis shoes, the Doctor looked like a typical civilian. Whether or not it was some sort of covert thing, Henry could not determine; all that mattered was the Doctor was there in the flesh again.

"Doctor!" Henry cried before running up and giving him a huge hug.

The gentleman chuckled. "Whoa. Easy there, Henry. Since when have you started calling me a doctor?"

This question stunned Henry as he let go of the gentleman he believed to be the Doctor and gazed closely at him. Yes, he looked like the Doctor and even sounded like the Doctor; but the expression on his face told Henry that this was not the Doctor.

"Who are you?" Henry inquired.

Again, the gentleman chuckled. "Henry, you should know. I'm Mr. Smith…John Smith…from Storybrooke Elementary. I'm, or I should say I will be, your sixth grade teacher." He playfully rubbed Henry's hair before adding, "I'll see you this Monday at school. Tell Mary Margaret…I mean, Miss Blanchard that I said 'ello." As John Smith walked past Emma, Regina, and Archie, who all waved hello to the schoolteacher, Smith quickly noticed the police box on the street corner and smiled over it. "Don't see one of those that much these days…not even here in America."

Not giving the police box another passing thought, John Smith continued his way down the sidewalk, whistling as he had done so. Henry watched this man walk away with a variety of emotions running through him. The ten-year-old had been in Storybrooke long enough to know all of the residents, and this man – who carried the face of the Doctor – was definitely not one of them. Meeting him only proved how correct Henry was in his suspicion: the curse did get to the Doctor.